“As in Life and as in JiuJitsu” by The Academy

This episode of award winning director Matt Hickney‘s web series The Academy tells the inspiring story of Chris Pike, a Brazilian jiujitsu instructor in California who had turned his life around through the discipline and art of his craft, from his long battle with drug addiction.

The challenge with the music in this video was to stay out of the way of Chris’s story, but also emphasize the seriousness of the situation he was in.

In this soundtrack I utilized several continual layers of instruments to give the piece continuity and also a sense of evolution as the story shifted mood and tone. I used a mixture of virtual string libraries for orchestration, real cello to supplement the string arrangements, bowed electric guitar to give a “haunted” quality his recollections of his past, drum libraries as well as live percussion to give the story momentum, and a mixture of ambient baritone guitar and synthesizers to bring “air” and brightness that contrasts the darkness of the strings.